The fundamental basis of Qaboos' coup to depose his father was one of the pressing need to modernize Oman. It's important to understand that Oman was and continues to be an absolute monarchy - Oman has no political parties, no official opposition, and the sultan's will is theoretically limited only by his ability to enforce it. The basic statute of Oman, its effective constitution, is remarkable in its brevity, and in one paragraph quite succinctly sums up the whole: "The Sultan is the Head of the State and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. His Person is inviolable. Respect of him is a duty and his command must be obeyed. He is the symbol of national unity and the guardian of its preservation and protection." It's not without basis that Oman at the time has since occasionally been referred to as the last medieval state on Earth.

In the 1960s, Qaboos' father, Said, had become reclusive, barred his citizens from leaving his country, was content to accumulate wealth from oil production without actually touching any of it or using it to improve the state of the country, and was prone to repressive measures like banning transistor radios, bicycles, sunglasses, and umbrellas (among other things) - in the name of protecting the country from dangerous foreign influences - despite that fact that he himself was well-educated and well-traveled: what was good for the sultan was not good for his people, it would seem. His son, Qaboos, by contrast, had been educated at the British military academy at Sandhurst, and had served a tour with the British forces stationed in West Germany.

He had a network of friends and associates among the government officials in Oman, but was deliberately excluded from any serious decision-making by his father. Upon his return to Oman, his father had him put under house arrest. Now, at the time, Oman was experiencing a communist insurgency (the Dhofar Rebellion), and the British were deeply involved with the country (they had assumed control of most of its important affairs in the aftermath of a previous conflict - the Jebel Akhdar War) and trying to maintain stability in the region, which was not being helped by Said's behavior, which had alienated most of what passed for the sultan's inner circle, as well.

Qaboos had seen the world and wished to modernize his country, and the British wanted someone on the throne that they could work with: it was a natural partnership. Qaboos, the British, and elements of the Omani government executed what has since been referred to as a bloodless coup - in fact, a few people were shot, including Said himself from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot, and one of the sultan's slaves (slavery was not formally abolished in Oman until Qaboos took power in 1970). Said was permitted to go into exile, and Qaboos took control of the country. To quote the new sultan's statement from the New York Times article released a few days later: “I, have watched with growing dismay and increasing anger the inability of my father to use the new‐found wealth of this country for the needs of its people. That is why I have taken control.”

Upon taking control of the country, Qaboos began to do exactly what he had promised. He tapped into that oil wealth which his father had preferred to neglect, and embarked upon a campaign of modernizing what was essentially a medieval state persisting into the 20th century. Roads had to be paved, hospitals and schools built. In 1970, there were three schools attended by less than a thousand students (all boys), and only thirty teachers. By 1985, fifteen years later, there were over two hundred thousand students enrolled in over five hundred schools.

Over a hundred centers were opened to address the major issue of adult illiteracy, and to offer vocational training for the country's new, rapidly modernizing economy. Foreign teachers were imported, and the Sultan Qaboos University opened, which today can boast over fifteen thousand students. There are over fifteen hospitals and eighty clinics, and infant mortality and deaths from malaria have dramatically fallen in the decades since Qaboos took power. There were new ports, radio and television stations, telephones, newspapers, and magazines, and much, much more - there's really no leader of any other nation in the world today who can claim to have had as significant an influence on their nation as Qaboos did during his fifty-year reign.

Recommended Reading

Oman Under Qaboos: From Coup to Constitution, 1970-1996 by Calvin H. Allen, ‎W. Lynn Rigsbee II

Oman: Politics and Society in the Qaboos State by Marc Valeri

Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965-1976 by Abdel Razzaq Takriti

Oman: the Modernization of the Sultanate by Calvin H. Allen, Jr

A History of Modern Oman by Jeremy Jones, ‎Nicholas Ridout

His father was an eccentric hermit who refused to change. Despite living in the same house, Qaboos never saw his father. His father forbade: more schools from being built, citizens from altering their homes to make improvements, wearing glasses (he said the only thing his citizens need to see is the Quran), smoking, leaving the country, using western medicines, and in general was satisfied with them remaining uneducated and poor. Lastly, he treated the southern province of Dhofar like his personal fief while he ran the country from costal Muscat. It was not a unified country and tribal warfare was the norm.

After Qaboos went to college in the United Kingdom and served in the British Army (in many respects the British trained him to be a Sultan) he came back to Oman and wanted to make reforms. His father was not open to these reforms. As well, the royal family in general including Qaboos's uncle did not like the Sultan and knew the situation was untenable. The country was divided between north and south - with southerners wanting to revolt, citizens were undereducated, and despite more money coming in due to oil the Sultan refused to change the country.

Everyone thought the Sultan might eventually be overthrown, but by his brother. Instead, Qaboos, seeing the feudalistic country being divided, facing rebellion in the south, and being kept back by his father decided to overthrow him with the assistance of the British. The Omani royal family voted to make Qaboos the next Sultan. He quickly changed the name of the country from "the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman" to "the Sultanate of Oman" to represent a united country.

This is a speech he made as Sultan. He says "yesterday, the country was in darkness" under his father but he desires to make bring it to its former greatness. In the longer version he went on to explain why he was changing the name of the country, how he wouldn't treat the people in Dhofar as a subject class like his father did, and how he invites those who fled the country under his father back to it. He wanted to repair the feudalism, poverty, and backwardness that his father encouraged.

I shall add, a graceless end was not abnormal in the country or region. The founder of the UAE had overthrown his brother in 1966, the Emir of Qatar would in 1972, and Qaboos's grandfather abdicated.